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FOLLOW-UP ON THE NEWS; Potato Gifts

''It's sort of like a Pet Rock, except that you can eat it,'' William Ricktor explained last May. What the Ketchum, Idaho, entrepreneur was suggesting was that consumers consider, for that hard-to-please person, the tender gift of a box of potatoes.

''It's the perfect gift for the recession,'' Mr. Ricktor said. He called his gift package Awesome Potatoes: four Idaho potatoes, each between 15.5 and 18.5 ounces, cradled in wood chips in a mahogany-veneered box. Mr. Ricktor was asking $9.95, plus a $2.50 shipping fee.

The business is coming along ''very, very well,'' he reports, but it's not a living yet. He says he is moving about 400 boxes a month in what he calls the development phase of the business. He is holding the line on the price; only the shipping fee is up - to $3.50.

''Most of our orders are from the East Coast,'' he notes. While waiting for growth, Mr. Ricktor, a creative salesman, is not idle. ''We're in the realty development business,'' he says, ''and we also own restaurants in Ketchum: the world-famous Cabin and the world-renowned Ketchum Fish Market.'' Richard Haitch

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A version of this article appears in print on August 8, 1982, on Page 1001041 of the National edition with the headline: FOLLOW-UP ON THE NEWS; Potato Gifts. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe